Last Wednesday, the Windows Vista February CTP was released, which Microsoft claims is ‘feature complete’. This means that with this release you can get a good idea of the functionality of Vista, and that future versions will mainly contain minor changes and bug fixes. The CTP, also known as ‘Build 5308’, was immediately taken care of by a number of sites, with mixed feelings as a result.
This version is workable, but still anything but reliable, writes PC Magazine. Regular crashes of Windows Explorer were neatly taken care of, but according to the site that’s not how it should be; the hardware support also leaves a lot to be desired. The most eye-catching feature is the Sidebar, akin to Apple’s Dashboard, which is used to house all kinds of small, informative programs. Microsoft calls such programs “gadgets,” which is two letters away from the fantasy word “widgets” Apple uses.
The Register explains the emphasis on the fact that Microsoft mainly wants to serve business customers with the new build. By promoting ‘5308’ as an ‘Enterprise CTP’, Redmond hopes that the business will test this version. “The impression is that Vista is made for private consumers,” said Windows client product manager Brad Goldberg, “but we want to dispel that impression. Vista is at least as good, if not better, for business.’ A salient detail is that Bill Gates himself launched Vista as a home entertainment platform during the CES in Las Vegas.
Like other sites emphasizes eWeek the progress in the field of the so-called ‘Least User Privileges’. Like the rest of the operating system, it works a lot smoother than with previous versions, and all administrative activities performed with restricted rights require the user to enter a password. “The security of Vista is therefore functionally equivalent to that of OS X and Linux,” the site concludes. But it’s never right or wrong: just like under OS X and Linux, users aren’t even allowed to set the clock without typing a password, and the reviewer doesn’t like that. An annoying bug cropped up when using Microsoft’s Bitlocker, which can encrypt the hard drive. The USB drive containing the key was not recognized during a reboot, and a long key had to be entered to access the data. In any case, an advantage was the installation time: at 40 minutes, it was already a lot shorter than with previous versions. That should not stop the testers.